Apostle Les Bowling teaches that God’s people are called to be both rooted and reaching.

Roots create endurance, identity, stability, spiritual nourishment, and the ability to withstand storms. Reach creates multiplication, influence, future, destiny, and legacy.

The Church cannot sacrifice one for the other.

We must remain deeply connected to the spiritual foundations that brought us here—prayer, the Word, worship, perseverance, community, and dependence upon the Holy Spirit—while allowing God to extend our influence into new generations, communities, and territories.

Even during seasons of loss and difficulty, we are called to keep worshiping. Whether we are holding the palm branch of victory or the willow branch of suffering, God remains worthy.

For Full Transcript…

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:05:07
Unknown
with that would you guys put your hands together for pastor lesson Sheila bowling.

00:00:05:10 – 00:00:12:26
Unknown
Come on up.

00:00:12:29 – 00:00:33:11
Unknown
I have so much to say about them and gratitude, but I’m going to let I’m going to let them speak and just, allow Holy Spirit to take over from here. All right? Just stay right there. Come on now, let’s give him a big hand clap. Come on, come on. You’ve done it all weekend. We can do it just a little bit longer.

00:00:33:12 – 00:01:15:12
Unknown
Come on. Somebody else needs your shout right now. You’re going to have a seat now. Wow, what an incredible time here. This weekend. I was able to come to your worship service on Thursday and Friday night. And, you know, because you’ve prayed for us. And I want to thank you guys so very much for praying for us. What a time of healing has already happened to me, and I know so many other people here that has.

00:01:15:15 – 00:01:37:06
Unknown
Thank you for all the love, all the prayers, and you know what? For those that don’t know, we lost our daughter just a few weeks ago. Actually, maybe a month and a half, I don’t know, times kind of been out there, but I always told everyone from day one. The journey began in February and it ended on August the 14th when she went to be with her father.

00:01:37:14 – 00:02:03:12
Unknown
I said, we need a miracle, and she got the greatest miracle that we could ever have, and that is she is in heaven crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And am I happy? No. But do I have joy? Yes, because he lives on the inside of me. I can have joy. I am not happy, but I can have joy in you to can have joy.

00:02:03:12 – 00:02:23:06
Unknown
I want to encourage you this morning. He that lives in you. Come on, let him flow through you. And as some of the ministers minister to me this morning, I thought, wow, what an incredible time we’ve had this weekend. But I want you to know that this was not just a normal conference. If you don’t know that, you don’t.

00:02:23:09 – 00:02:43:26
Unknown
Do you know that? Right? You got something very unusual here. And I tell my friends all the time, you can preach in a minute, honey. All the time. I won’t get started. Y’all know me, right? All the time that they have to come here. But this was not just a conference that you all hosted. You hosted. Come on.

00:02:43:28 – 00:03:07:26
Unknown
A move of God. That’s what you hosted here. And it wasn’t just an event, it was you all prayed. And guess what? The fire come down. You all are a praying church. Don’t ever lose that. When he said come out on Tuesday. Make every effort. I’m going to give you a little glitch there. Make every effort to come out on that morning because things happen when we pray together.

00:03:08:04 – 00:03:41:01
Unknown
Come on. Things begin to shift and things begin to move. And I heard the spirit of the Lord very clearly on Friday night say that there is some new territories that you’re about to take here in this region right now, he said. There’s some new assignments that I’m about to release. Wait for them, and there are new souls I just broke with and said that there’s new souls coming into this house and into this region, and he wants you to know it is here now that you need to press forward and you begin to move.

00:03:41:06 – 00:04:08:29
Unknown
Don’t just stop and say, well, we had a wonderful, great time and let’s relax. I know you won’t do that, but continue to press because it’s about ready to break open. I said, it’s about ready to break up those things you have prayed for, those things you have cried out for home. I’m telling you, there’s a great destiny here that you haven’t even begun to even unlock.

00:04:08:29 – 00:04:35:13
Unknown
And you’re like, it’s wonderful. It’s great. It is. But there’s more. Look at your neighbor and say, there’s more. He’s about ready to release his spirit like never before in this region. If you’ll just get up now and just give him a hand, clap for what he done. Come on through you. Through every leader, every. And we thank you for it, Lord.

00:04:35:18 – 00:04:44:10
Unknown
In Jesus name, Amen. Now you can preach. Would you welcome my husband right now?

00:04:44:12 – 00:05:10:19
Unknown
Oh, right. And I gotta follow that. All right. So she starts high and goes higher. I start low and come up in the journey. It is an honor to be here. It’s a word of life. Church. And, again, we got to for the second year. Got to enjoy the Spirit and Truth conference. And, you know, basically, you know, God’s people gather together.

00:05:10:22 – 00:05:41:24
Unknown
What you’re really hosting, you’re hosting the Holy Spirit. Yeah, yeah. For God to do what he wants to do. I’m always amazed here that there’s so many spirit happenings taking place at the same time. And so the voice of the Lord is like a voice of a multitude. So, you have just one of the most incredible churches that I’ve ever had the honor and opportunity to be able to fellowship with, be with, and and I go all over the place.

00:05:41:25 – 00:06:02:11
Unknown
All over the place. But you have something special here. Yeah. You got, like, one of those hidden ones that hidden in the cleft of the rock that God’s brought out, and and he. You might have started there, but he’s pulled you out and he’s going to use you as a as an example. For, for for ministries to be free to go forward.

00:06:02:13 – 00:06:26:02
Unknown
To make a difference. And so we thank God for that. We thank God for Pastor Shelly and Jonathan for having us here. All right. It’s nice just to have somebody that likes you. All right. And, apostle Pat in Celine. Of course. Dear friends, we thank God for them and appreciate them very, very much. They were the kind of the doorway into this relationship.

00:06:26:08 – 00:06:50:02
Unknown
And I just appreciate all of the team. All the team. I set in on a couple of Liz’s, sessions, and I thought. Am I even called? I’m just. I’m just. I’m not sure. This. Yeah. I mean, it was deep colors under deep, and I still in the kiddy pool, and, I mean, it was rich and real, and.

00:06:50:04 – 00:07:18:28
Unknown
And I want to thank all of you saints. Pastor Bob, Cindy and and everybody that has stood in the gap for such a long time in raising up these double portion sons and daughters. And now it’s starting to show. It’s starting to show in a greater, greater measure. So, for me, it’s it’s it’s good to be back here, from a year ago, year ago, we brought with us this time.

00:07:19:00 – 00:07:41:20
Unknown
A couple of senior pastors in, in our network, two ladies that they both lead. Churches flourishing, strong, fruitful churches, Pastor Libby Fannin and Pastor Debbie Horne. I want you to stand up. Yeah.

00:07:41:22 – 00:08:05:24
Unknown
So it’s their first time up on the mountain, and I’m sure not to last for sure. But, really, in the process and the challenge of our of losing our daughter 44 years of age, three little kids, all of that, who understands all of that? But God is good. Yeah, yeah. God is good. God is good.

00:08:05:28 – 00:08:32:21
Unknown
And it’s him that we that that we follow. All as I know is the Lord started preparing me for that a year ago. Right here. Yeah, a year ago. Right here, though. I didn’t know it. Yeah, yeah, I didn’t know it at the time. One was the we come in always traveling. Seemed they’re going to put on my tombstone.

00:08:32:21 – 00:08:52:17
Unknown
He was tired. All right. And so, I come in tired. And so the Spirit and Truth conference has happened last year. So I thought, well, I’m going to I said, well, it’s kind of a warship thing. And I thought, well, you know, I’m maybe not the, the best dancer in the room, but, I’ll, I’m going to check it out.

00:08:52:17 – 00:09:28:07
Unknown
And I just was impacted and imparted with the Spirit of God and the wisdom of God. And it’s just really minister to me. And then we had our, our, our ministers get away and and, Ernest Ernest Casco, he was was there. I’d never met him before his dad. And anyways, he just began to share and he just, shared about his daughter that passed away so many years ago in her 20s and how that she, you know, she she died in his arms.

00:09:28:07 – 00:09:49:23
Unknown
And I remember being so moved by that. And I was just really, you know, we’d not had any kind of loss of that nature. And I thought I was just really moved by that, and, and it just, it made me, like, real emotional. And I should be more emotional and but I thought, wow, it really impacted me.

00:09:49:26 – 00:10:15:07
Unknown
And then when that showed up in February and it just kept declining all the way to August, I thought about my encounter with him probably a thousand times, and I don’t know, all I can tell you this. There’s a koinonia, a fellowship, there’s an impartation thing that happens in the right connection with the brother or sister in Christ.

00:10:15:12 – 00:10:46:12
Unknown
And something was imparted into me for me to endure and to lead in that it really was. It all started right here for us. It all started right here. And the message. That I’m going to share today, that in part I have shared all year, right here is where it began. I began talking about being rooted in roots and even in the Spirit and Truth conference.

00:10:46:12 – 00:11:10:18
Unknown
I seen a somebody done a kind of prophetic art thing of with roots and, and I thought, okay, well, that’s that’s just a California word. You know, they need to be rooted. All right. And so. Well so it continued in California. It went to Ohio and it kept going to other places. And I couldn’t get I could not get away from it.

00:11:10:18 – 00:11:40:27
Unknown
And it became the theme of our whole year. All the way even up in to now is that the the message and the importance and vitality of being rooted. Everybody say rooted. And of course, living on a mountain close to the big trees and all the different things that you all contend with, you have a greater understanding on that kind of thing and the importance of roots.

00:11:41:00 – 00:12:11:11
Unknown
All right. But I guess you would say, and now this is this is new here, but I’m going to kind of hit part two. I’m going to I’m going to call this message rooted and reaching. Root and reaching. All right. Matthew 13 just a few foundational scriptures. And then, we’re going to have a ordination towards the end.

00:12:11:12 – 00:12:43:04
Unknown
Excited about that? Yeah, that’s going to be awesome. And going to going to be a powerful. But, the parable of the sower, just to give you the real short version. The father is the gardener. He sows seed, is the Word of God into different hearts for different types of grounds, for different types of results. Alright, so he’s explaining it and I just want to hit just one of them real quick and says this.

00:12:43:04 – 00:13:26:26
Unknown
Verse 20, but he who received the seed on stony places. This is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. All right. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. It came with joy. Right. All right. But because there was no root in himself, he did not endure very long. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

00:13:26:29 – 00:13:34:02
Unknown
How many knows what it’s like to be excited on Sunday and in a cave on Monday?

00:13:34:05 – 00:14:03:06
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, it can happen. It can happen. And so Jesus said, I think it’s in John 1560 said, you did not choose me, I chose you. I’ve called you and ordained you that you would bear fruit and that your fruit would remain. So God wants us blessed. He wants joy. He wants all of those different kinds of things to be experienced and encounters with God.

00:14:03:13 – 00:14:36:15
Unknown
But how many of those that we are in a crock pot long term journey? Yes we are. That just continues to cook and cook and cook. I’m kind of more of a microwave guy, but but we have a crock pot journey and so, so to be able to endure. But the key of enduring is roots. Everybody say rooted.

00:14:36:17 – 00:14:49:18
Unknown
Turn to a couple people say are your roots intact now? Don’t look at the lady’s hair. All right. Just just look to one another. All right.

00:14:49:20 – 00:14:52:18
Unknown
Rooted.

00:14:52:20 – 00:15:34:19
Unknown
Isaiah 37. Isaiah 37, verse 30. This shall be assigned to you. You shall eat this year, such as grows of itself in the second year. What springs from the same also in the third year. So and reap plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. And the remnant, everybody shalt the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again say again, take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

00:15:34:21 – 00:15:49:14
Unknown
Take what? Root down word and bear fruit upward. All right. Now. Psalms 80. Psalms 80.

00:15:49:16 – 00:16:19:03
Unknown
Talking about bringing them into the Promised Land. Psalms 80, verse eight. You have brought a vine out of Egypt, and you have cast out the nations and planted it. Planting is a strategy and an instrument of warfare.

00:16:19:06 – 00:16:47:26
Unknown
Casted out the nations by planting something and planted it and prepared room for it. All right. And prepared room for it, and caused it to do what? Take deep root. And it. What field? The land.

00:16:47:29 – 00:17:29:11
Unknown
Deep root. And what for the land. God’s pattern of doing something usually involves planting something and establishing a strong root system. All right. In Genesis one Genesis two, there’s three basic ways that God created creation. Number one, he spoke, let there be light, and there was light. So he spoke. Two he formed Adam from the dust of the ground.

00:17:29:13 – 00:18:10:12
Unknown
So he spoke. He formed and breathed the breath of life. And then the third way is the Scripture says, and he planted a garden eastward of Eden. He planted a garden. So he spoke. He formed a breathed, and he planted a garden eastward of Eden. We are a planted people. This is a planted church. And trust me, you have a good root system.

00:18:10:19 – 00:18:29:27
Unknown
Yes, yes, yes. You couldn’t have went through what you went through and lasted as long as you have lasted. And you still happy? You still saved. You still love Jesus. All right. You couldn’t have done that without a strong root system.

00:18:29:29 – 00:18:57:24
Unknown
How many of those are 20? 26 has been some kind of year. Yeah. I’ll be glad for it to see my tail lights, I’m telling you. Yeah. Get thee behind me, 2026. It might have not been bad for everybody, and it wasn’t totally bad for us, but it was challenging. 2026 was the year of a lot of storms, a lot of lost, a lot of a lot of anguish in people.

00:18:57:26 – 00:19:24:25
Unknown
All kinds of things happening on one end, on the other end seems to be blessing and God’s touch and presence. When I heard about pastor Bob right in the middle of, preaching, when I couldn’t believe it, yeah, I couldn’t believe it. And I want to say personally, thank you to the medical people, the EMT people that was on post.

00:19:24:28 – 00:19:49:23
Unknown
Oh, yeah. And was on it. And because he was on it. He’s still here today. So we thank you for that. We we have we appreciate that. Very, very much so. You know, things like that. I just buried a one of our first one of our first former associate pastors. Just, just a week ago.

00:19:49:29 – 00:20:17:24
Unknown
Just a week ago, all kinds of various and different in and challenging things. So in 2026, been seems to be marked by a lot of loss, a lot of anguish, suffering, those kind of things. 2027 is going to be a year of rebuilding, of new beginnings, of reestablishing, yeah. Of restoring. Watch what I’m telling you. Just know this.

00:20:17:26 – 00:20:24:13
Unknown
That when something is lost, God has already begun.

00:20:24:15 – 00:20:54:26
Unknown
Bringing its restitution, bringing its reconciliation. Working at plan, doing what ever is necessary. I mean, immediately he is doing that. Last time I was in Ukraine, you know, still in the war. It’s strange there in the Odessa area that, you know, by the Black Sea, they get hit with a lot of bombs, like every night, you know, because it’s a port, a province.

00:20:55:03 – 00:21:13:10
Unknown
And, in a strange. They’ll, they’ll they’ll they’ll hit and blow up houses and buildings and, and, as soon as they do that, immediately the next hour, they start rebuilding.

00:21:13:12 – 00:21:39:23
Unknown
It’s like they in a war, but not in a war. And in two hours, they had a restaurant celebrating somebody’s birthday. I thought you realize what happened here. And they had just made a decision that no matter what comes, we’re going to live our life. We’re not going to be locked up in fear of what possibly might happen or likely will happen.

00:21:39:26 – 00:22:05:24
Unknown
We’re going to live our lives. We’re going to celebrate. And wherever we get hit, we’re going to rebuild bigger and better and stronger, and we’re going to have a comeback. And so that is the philosophy. And I think that is the spirit and the heart of Scripture, that God is going to do that in an incredible and a powerful way.

00:22:05:26 – 00:22:13:08
Unknown
Can somebody say Amen? Now, how long have you all been to church? What, 60 years?

00:22:13:10 – 00:22:41:00
Unknown
Wow. 60. 69. How many feels like it’s been 109. All right. Yeah. No. 69. So, been around a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Not many churches last this long. I know a little bit of the history and some of the. Oh, Celine says that. Okay. We’re going to believe Celine. All right? But I’m voting for you, Pat. All. Anyways.

00:22:41:02 – 00:23:13:21
Unknown
But anyways, it’s a long time. It’s a long time. Not not many. Make it that long. And here you are already in your third generation of of leadership. And, you know, pastoral pastor Shelley and Jonathan. You know, tip of the spear already in the third generation of that. And it was just three years ago. In this time period three years ago that they that they took the helm and guess what?

00:23:13:25 – 00:23:40:17
Unknown
They get ready to put in another pastor to plan a word of life in an adjoining town a little bit away from here. Think about that. It has just happened. And now it’s happening again through the spirit of what has been going. I want to say thank you for all the long timers that have lasted and have been here.

00:23:40:23 – 00:24:14:03
Unknown
It would not be possible without your deep roots and said, I’m in. I am all out the whole root. Yeah, I have a great appreciation for for people that have rooted in such a way. So you have rooted your, your, your your roots are deep. You’ve lasted still flourishing liberty. Good representation of of generations. And you’ve done you’ve done a lot of things.

00:24:14:06 – 00:24:30:01
Unknown
But God didn’t bring you this far just so you could be a trophy of survival. Yeah. Yeah. Not just to survive, but he’s called you to thrive.

00:24:30:04 – 00:24:54:16
Unknown
Rooted and reaching. Now it’s time. You have done a lot of things overseas. Obviously a Greece. I know things that Africa. Other places. I mean knows it’s good to have good friends and good relationships. Yeah. Apostle Pat has really been helping me a lot in the last few years. Different, you know, different things come up.

00:24:54:16 – 00:25:11:27
Unknown
I can’t say, Apostle Pat, can you do it? And can you go here and go there? And he just just, in July done that? Yeah. With with our daughters challenge. I wouldn’t be able to I wasn’t able to go to the, this conference that I do every year. But Paul has been there before. They know him, love him.

00:25:11:27 – 00:25:37:15
Unknown
So he went and done that. And, they had was it about a year or two ago? They said, can you come in our network? We have apostolic. Part of apostolic council is is apostle Isaac Conjuror. And he said, hey, can can can you or somebody, you know, come and do this funeral. Somebody in our church has, you know, is.

00:25:37:17 – 00:25:53:14
Unknown
I said, well, I couldn’t cause this schedule, but I said, Apostle Pat, he’s, he’s, he’s right out there in the same neighborhood. All right. Right out there on the left coast.

00:25:53:16 – 00:26:00:11
Unknown
That was a joke. All right. I’m just messing with you. And.

00:26:00:14 – 00:26:11:27
Unknown
And called back. Yeah. I’m in. Good. What? I didn’t realize that that funeral was going to be in Africa.

00:26:11:29 – 00:26:34:18
Unknown
I thought he was just going to jump on a plane and just shoot over to over to Portland. Oh, no. He went to Africa and for like a couple weeks. And the funerals are quite lengthy. Yeah. You know, and just don’t talk in, in in hours. They have them in days. And so he went all the way over there for that.

00:26:34:18 – 00:27:00:18
Unknown
So, I’m always careful to not tell him too much information and just say the Lord has opened an opportunity for you. And, actually, I didn’t know that, but I really I really appreciate that you have been rooted. You have been proven. There’s no question about it. Now there’s another, I guess you would say prophetic phase, apostolic phase, and the life cycle of this ministry.

00:27:00:20 – 00:27:31:24
Unknown
Are rooted in reaching, say, reaching now. The seed thought of this word, Pastor Libby. She, Apostle Pat preach for us in her conference. Apostle Isaac, pastor Libby preached the day after our daughter’s homegoing service. At the church on Sunday. And she, made this statement, and I just grabbed it and how important it is to be rooted.

00:27:31:28 – 00:27:58:00
Unknown
But it’s also important to have reach and basically. And so I’ve taken that and have perfected that thought and, and it just went on with it, just, it just it just caught me. It just it just really caught me. Without roots, there’s no sustainability. There’s no enduring. There’s no lasting. There’s no heritage without being rooted, but without reaching.

00:27:58:01 – 00:28:25:05
Unknown
There’s no destiny. There’s no future. There is no expansion. There is no going beyond. So you need both being rooted and reaching. Amen. If you reach without roots, you’ll just have joy for a little bit. As a scripture, I read it just kind of a splash of wine, a flash in the pan. It’s just here. And then. And then it’s gone.

00:28:25:06 – 00:29:15:04
Unknown
It doesn’t last. But if you have rooted without reaching, guess what? You don’t have legacy. You don’t have future fulfillment. You don’t have prophetic promises unfolding over time. You need both rooted and reaching at the same time. And now is the time, I think that God is calling us to reach beyond, to reach deeper and to reach farther, to reach into sectors of society and to cultures and demographics and markets and all these different things, whatever the sphere may be, to reach into those things and to take what you got here and bring it into those places, into those demographics.

00:29:15:04 – 00:29:34:17
Unknown
And when they see how you handle things, how you lead things, how that you’re sharp on top of it, how that you work, they’re going to begin to ask questions. Where do you get that kind of attitude? How do you get these kind of creative, cutting edge ideas? Well, just just come follow me on Sunday and I’ll show you right back where it started.

00:29:34:20 – 00:30:02:15
Unknown
And there is a man by the name of Jesus. We met him. He placed us here. And we have got a stability and a strength in our life. And because of that, we’ve been able to reach beyond. Thank God for the ecclesia. But the ecclesia is to reach beyond and to reach out and to reach further. So we are both to be what rooted and what and reaching.

00:30:02:17 – 00:30:41:26
Unknown
Without roots. There’s no stability without reach, there’s no expansion. It’s not one or the other. We need both. Without roots, there’s no foundation without reaching. There’s no future development. We need both of those things. Without roots, there’s no staying power. Without reach, there’s no multiplication. We need to stay in power. But we need also multiplication. Without roots, there’s no clear identity without reach.

00:30:41:28 – 00:31:07:22
Unknown
That. Listen to this. There is no, continuing legacy without roots. There’s no spiritual nourishment without reach, there’s no outward fruitfulness. We need the enrichment, but we also need the fruitfulness without roots. There’s no preservation without reach. There’s no propagation.

00:31:07:25 – 00:31:46:13
Unknown
Yeah. Without roots, there’s no depth without reach. There’s no breadth. Plant them. And they filled the land. Without roots. There’s no endurance without reach. There’s no advancement without roots. There’s no continuity without reach. There’s no new beginnings without without roots. There’s no established convictions without reach. There’s no new territories to take them into. Without roots, there is no strength to withstand the storms.

00:31:46:15 – 00:32:22:18
Unknown
But without reach there is no influence beyond ourselves. Yeah. Reaching out, reaching a beyond and transcending what we have known. In yesteryear, the the ideology was, you know, hold the fort to Jesus comes and try to keep from backsliding between Sundays. All right. Yes. If I can just make it maybe the midweek, I don’t know. And, but how many believes that the promises of God in him are.

00:32:22:19 – 00:32:42:22
Unknown
Yes and Amen? That God has more for us. He has greater power for us. And I believe that the Christ in you is greater than the sin in them. Yeah, yeah, that the same God that saved us is the same God that will keep us, and the same God that will journey with us, and the same God that will cause us to cross the finish line together.

00:32:42:24 – 00:32:59:19
Unknown
He will cause us to be able to win in the end, regardless of the seasons, regardless of the challenges, regardless of the times. Listen, with roots we establish, with reach, we extend.

00:32:59:22 – 00:33:31:01
Unknown
It’s both roots and reach. With roots we have stability. With reach, we have expansion. I’m really just trying to really nail this with roots. We got foundation. With reach, we have a future. Yeah, not just a foundation. We got to have a future. Can somebody say amen with, with with roots. We have strength with reach. We have growth.

00:33:31:04 – 00:34:00:01
Unknown
Let’s be strong and but then it’s also expand its grow. Alright. Grow. We have growth with root. You got staying power with reach. You got advancement with roots. You got preservation with reach you got multiplication. I know I’m kind of going over them again, but I’m just saying I’m a little bit of a different way. Listen, it is important with roots you have endurance, but with reach you have progress.

00:34:00:03 – 00:34:14:06
Unknown
Yes. Listen. Do it. But let’s progress at the same time. With roots, you have history. With reach you have destiny.

00:34:14:08 – 00:34:33:26
Unknown
And the destiny is to flow out of the history. It’s important to know where we come from, how that we got to, where we got the price that was paid, the sacrifice of. Just let me encourage you. If you succeed without sacrificing, know this. Somebody did.

00:34:33:28 – 00:34:51:28
Unknown
Or if you sacrificed without succeeding, just know this. Somebody will. We all work together. We all work together with, with with roots. Listen, you have security, but with reach you have opportunity.

00:34:52:00 – 00:35:25:11
Unknown
With roots. You got maturity. With reach, you got reproduction. I like it in first Kings 20. Eventually, after a while. Now understand the Western Hemisphere form of retirement is confided in the scripture. However, adjusting your pace, slowing down that is, it is in life. All right. Our roles change and all of those different things. But in First Kings 20, God is admonishing.

00:35:25:17 – 00:35:57:02
Unknown
It’s a time of war. And he said this. He said, don’t let those that are putting on the armor boast like those that are taking off the armor, because those that are taking off the armor, they’ve been through the a war and they made it. Yeah, they still alive. Those that just put on the armor. Yeah. It’s uncertain what’s going to be like for you.

00:35:57:04 – 00:36:17:28
Unknown
So it’s wise for those that is putting on the armor to have a good long talk in many talks with those that are just taking off the armor. How did you make it? How did you say alive? How did you thrive? How did you get through it? How did you progress through all of this? How did you get past these things?

00:36:18:01 – 00:36:44:05
Unknown
Well, watch here and watch there. And you see that that’s a trip line. You see that? That may be a booby trap or a landmine. That may be this or maybe that. We need both, because eventually the rooted generation gets tired. We don’t have the energy to do the commission, but others do, right? Eventually you come to a point where an old man’s dream finds fulfillment in a young man’s vision.

00:36:44:08 – 00:37:06:18
Unknown
And so you need both of those things combining and collaborating together, coming together to be able to get the strength and the blessing and the benefit of each. Yes, everybody has its own sound, its own song, its own battle, its own giant, its own Goliath that has to defeat. And let’s go ahead and do that. Things will be different, strategies will be different.

00:37:06:18 – 00:37:36:22
Unknown
But the battle and the certain core principles will be the same. And we can tell them as a routed generation, you can make it, you can make it. But know this, you’re going to even if you got a mind like Einstein and your book read to your book blind, you’re going to face situations out there that you do not have a clue in how to handle it, because it’s going to require humility and a total dependance on God.

00:37:36:24 – 00:37:57:14
Unknown
He will not build a ministry or a future or a vision for you in which you do not need him in. Listen, I, I don’t need help for the things that are familiar that I understand, that I know how to do. I need, I need faith, and I need help for what I don’t understand. It is not familiar, and I don’t know how to do right.

00:37:57:15 – 00:38:23:24
Unknown
And so passing those heart core principles. But listen, what? Word of life. Listen, you’ve got a strong root system, but God is getting ready to kick off and kick it out and stretch it out on another level on the mountain, more of the mountain, more of the territories and farther across the waters. God is going to extend your reach.

00:38:23:26 – 00:38:30:01
Unknown
If you believe that, give the Lord a shout that a clap offering.

00:38:30:03 – 00:38:33:24
Unknown
Come on.

00:38:33:26 – 00:39:07:03
Unknown
Yeah. Rooted and reaching. Rooted and reaching. It’s important that we root in that. We stay rooted. That we stay rooted. One of the, kind of the cultural discerns, of our time. It says America and the Western Hemisphere is like a cut flower civilization. You cut a flower from its roots. It still looks pretty. It still smells pretty, but it is in a state of decay.

00:39:07:05 – 00:39:36:15
Unknown
And unless it gets reconnected to its roots, eventually the destruction will be irreversible. So the point is this. We must stay connected to our roots. What? God is here, what God has said. What God is here was was not the online world. My goodness, when I started to minister, there was no online. We thought a hard drive was to drive down the back roads.

00:39:36:17 – 00:39:53:18
Unknown
Yeah, we thought that the internet was new fishing equipment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it wasn’t none of that when I got started in it. And and I thank God for all of these advances in our ministry. We use all of them. We use all of them. But we never let it take center place. We never let it get in the driver’s seat.

00:39:53:20 – 00:40:15:20
Unknown
It we never let it become the that we live or die or do or don’t do. Because of that, what got us here? Interceding and supplicating and praying and persevering and fasting and calling upon the God of heaven. Humbling ourselves at the altar of an Almighty God, crying out to God in the midnight hour and asking God to come.

00:40:15:22 – 00:40:44:13
Unknown
Asking God to work, asking God to do. And out of that desperation desire he heard from heaven and he sent the answer. And that is still what it takes. You still gotta eat carpet. Yeah, yeah, you gotta eat carpet. You gotta persevere. You got. Listen, okay, I’m going to. I’ll be number three Tuesday morning is, is is your thing all right?

00:40:44:15 – 00:41:08:23
Unknown
Actually, that’s when we have our prayer meetings on Tuesday. We’ve had we’ve had on Tuesday for almost 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. So I don’t know. A timely Tuesday. They got to be some kind of little rhyme there. But I want to encourage you to come together in corporate prayer and believe and trust God for God to do what only he can do.

00:41:08:25 – 00:41:32:29
Unknown
You have been rooted, stay rooted, understand, understand your journey. Appreciate the saints that that has persevered. How did you get through it? How did you make it? How did you overcome? Because those things have nothing to do with technology. They have. They have to do with with heart and with with life. And they have to do with calling out to God and be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

00:41:33:02 – 00:41:41:27
Unknown
I appreciate all these things and the online things. But listen, the online church ain’t going to visit you in the hospital.

00:41:41:29 – 00:42:02:15
Unknown
I it’s it’s it’s all good. But but they ain’t going to do that. Yeah. They listen when your whole world walks out they ain’t going to walk in. Yeah. You’re just going to be cut off if you can’t pay the cable bill. You know that’s just when that disconnection, those things are like supplements. All right. Like like kind of like, you know, vitamins.

00:42:02:18 – 00:42:32:12
Unknown
All right. That is meant to enhance our health, but it does not take the place of real exercise and real nutrition. Those things are additives. They’re good. Nothing wrong with it. But just know this. To come together as the assembly, to journey together, to overcome together. To work through problems together. To persevere together. Together as a community, bearing one another’s burdens, lifting one another up, helping one another, loving one another, forgiving one another.

00:42:32:13 – 00:42:53:20
Unknown
Having long suffering and patience with one another. Guess what? That’s a way that you can make it. Because if I get to the mountaintop and nobody is, that ain’t success. No, no, that’s my ambition. If I get to the mountaintop, I want a whole bunch of other people to be with me there, because I did not get there by myself.

00:42:53:25 – 00:43:16:09
Unknown
Anybody that climbs the mountain of success or fruitfulness or breakthrough, just know that there’s no such thing as a self-made man or a self-made woman. You’re only successful because a lot of other people wanted you to be. Somebody has helped you. Somebody has loved you, somebody has empowered you. Somebody has got behind you and got your back. Amen.

00:43:16:12 – 00:43:51:27
Unknown
Do you believe we need one another? Right. Turn to somebody older and younger and say you need me more than you think.

00:43:51:29 – 00:44:01:29
Unknown
Two quick scriptures, and then we’re going to segway into the ordination.

00:44:02:01 – 00:44:33:15
Unknown
Psalms 137. There’s kind of an interesting. And I’ll bring you back to that in a second, but. Well, I’m in the neighborhood. I just thought I would touch it. Verse one. By the rivers of Babylon. This is Babylonian captivity. There, there we set down. Yay! We wept when we remembered. Sign. Listen to this. We hung our hearts up on the willows in the midst of it.

00:44:33:17 – 00:44:58:12
Unknown
That’s an interesting point. Harp and expression. Instrument of worship. We hung when the when the the Babylonian captivity. It was so disheartened that they hung their worship up on the willow trees. Now Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23.

00:44:58:14 – 00:45:34:25
Unknown
This is an instruction here. It’s really kind of wanting to hit the principle of this. All right. Talking about feast priesthood, the priesthood represents the ministry, those kind of things. But gave me a unique instruction. Verse 40, and you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the bows of leafy trees, and the willows of the brook.

00:45:34:27 – 00:46:02:25
Unknown
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. And I really just want to pull out. I’m not going to try to pull out all that, but just two things there, he said. When you come before me, not coming before priest, but coming before God, the worship, I want you to have two things in your hands a palm branch and a willow branch.

00:46:02:28 – 00:46:36:28
Unknown
The palm branch always represented victory, breakthrough, prosperity, accomplishment. Remember when Christ was the triumphal entry? All the palm branches. Hey, that was. That was Psalms 118 being walked out. Blessed is he. Hosanna. Blessed he who comes in the name of the Lord. Save us now, Lord. Save us now. King. So it was the palm represented. Victory. Blessing. Increase.

00:46:37:03 – 00:47:06:03
Unknown
Breakthrough. How many knows? We have those times. And out of that should flow a worship in gratitude. We thank God with that. But how many knows that there’s other times that it is not a palm branch, but it is a willow branch. A willow branch represents suffering, weeping, loss, not happy, not feeling good. It is not a good season, he said.

00:47:06:04 – 00:47:32:14
Unknown
When you come before the Lord, bring both branches. I want you to worship me when it’s when the sun is shining and the favor of the Lord is there. And I want you to worship me. When you’re in a season of survival, it is not going well. You are not happy. You are rejoicing on Sunday. Can’t get out of the bed on Monday.

00:47:32:17 – 00:47:55:18
Unknown
You’re in depression. You’re having problem. That is a willow branch, he said. I want you to bring both of them before me because that is what ministry is like. That is what serving God is like on one side. It’s the blessing, the promises of God. Yes and amen. On the other side, you get hit, you get blindsided, you suffer loss.

00:47:55:21 – 00:48:20:08
Unknown
You have tragedy in crisis, all of those different things, regardless of what comes. He said, come before me, prepared to worship me. If it’s a willow branch season or it’s a palm branch season, I want you to glorify me because I’m bigger than both of them. Come on, let’s take about 30s to give God a shout and a clap for free.

00:48:20:10 – 00:48:24:25
Unknown
Give him a clap offering.

00:48:24:28 – 00:48:31:26
Unknown
Give him a clap offering. Magnify him.

00:48:31:29 – 00:49:07:12
Unknown
You may be in a willow branch time. You may be in a palm branch time. It doesn’t matter. Worship before the Lord. Worship. Offer the sacrifice of praise because of the spirit of heaviness. So the children of Israel into Babylonian captivity. They were so disheartened, taken from their homeland to a place they didn’t want to be. And there the Scripture said that they took their worship, their hearts, and hang them on the willow trees.

00:49:07:14 – 00:49:22:03
Unknown
In the time of a willow time of weeping, of loss, they hung up their worship right there. You know what God is saying?

00:49:22:06 – 00:49:53:15
Unknown
Get your harp. Get it off the willow branches. Just sit down under a willow tree and sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Worship before the Lord, regardless of the willow branch time. Because when you begin to do that, it moves things in the spirit and in praise begins to steal the avenger. It begins to push him back.

00:49:53:18 – 00:50:17:27
Unknown
It begins to implement the judgment that was written against Satan. When you begin to worship all that God promised, all that God has accomplished, and all that God said, your circumstances may not change immediately, but the atmosphere of your life will shift in time, I promise you so, Lord, we’re not just going to listen. We’re not going to just worship you in good weather.

00:50:17:28 – 00:50:41:15
Unknown
We’re going to worship you in bad weather, hard weather, when it’s not going good. Regardless, give God that kind of commitment, that kind of praise. Listen, he just don’t want us to survive a season. He wants us to come through a willow time and to a place where we still have not lost our heart for God and His people in his vision.

00:50:41:18 – 00:51:01:24
Unknown
And guess what I just want I just come to commend you all. You all have done that. Yes, you have done that word of life. You’ve been through the fire. You’ve been through the flood, and the fire did not burn you up, nor did the flood overtake you because I Zia 43 he says, I have called you by name.

00:51:01:28 – 00:51:29:08
Unknown
You are mine, you are his. He kept you when you didn’t realize you was being kept. He was pushing back when you didn’t realize things was trying to get in. He was restoring when you didn’t even realize how deeply you were hurt. I just want to encourage you that you can do this. You can overcome. Can somebody say Amen?

00:51:29:10 – 00:51:49:00
Unknown
Listen, you know, the parents are supposed to bury the children, not the children’s parents or the children. The parents, not the parents and children. It was kind of odd and out of order. But just know this.

00:51:49:02 – 00:52:14:27
Unknown
Whatever you’re going through, somebody else’s went through it. That’s right. Yeah. Somebody else has went through that. You never know the the the depth of pain, struggle and challenge that that people go through. I’m just curious, anybody here that has ever lost a child, mother, a couple. I want you to just stand to your feet. Just stand to your feet.

00:52:14:29 – 00:52:48:01
Unknown
Yeah. Stand to your feet. Pastor Libby, she lost her son. We just lost a daughter. Different ones for different reasons. All I can tell you is this, I’m sorry for your loss, but just know this. In Christ, they mourn your future than in your past. They are. Heaven is real. Heaven is real. God is real. And all I’m saying is, listen, there’s going to be a comeback and catch up season in 27.

00:52:48:03 – 00:53:23:25
Unknown
He is going to rebuild and rebuild strong and extend and increase the reach. And as you are reaching, just know this. The roots are thickening, the roots are still being established, rooted and reaching. Rooted. I can endure, I can overcome reaching. I have a future. The promise, the prophecy will be fulfilled. Amen. Alright, let’s give the Lord a shout out to the cloud offering.

00:53:23:28 – 00:53:31:03
Unknown
Come on. Rooted and reaching.

00:53:31:05 – 00:54:03:00
Unknown
And now it’s, It is. It is an honor to be able to rejoice and celebrate with you of your reach. That is going to continue to happen. That is going to continue. A place to take place. Pastor Jeremiah and Michelle are going to be you all have shared this, right? Okay. You thought, okay, I’m going to unload the truck and they don’t even know there’s a truck.

00:54:03:01 – 00:54:07:19
Unknown
All right.

00:54:07:21 – 00:54:40:07
Unknown
The church, the church plants in Jamestown. It’s time for what you got here to spread out? Yes. It is. Yeah. And what is happening here will happen there. It’ll be a there’ll be differences, but the same spirit, the same spiritual DNA is going to happen in an incredible and a powerful way. And at this time, I want to ask the ordination council to come to the platform, please.

00:54:40:09 – 00:55:26:24
Unknown
All right. Yeah. That’s fine. Yeah. All right. Jeremiah shall. Come on. Come on up. And Apostle Pat is going to. And Celine is going to present that this is the way ordination works. When somebody senses a call, you feel a stirring like a I think maybe God is doing this so and so and, you know, have a decent testimony and maybe some signs of it.

00:55:26:26 – 00:55:54:00
Unknown
But over a process of time, when you come into ordination, it’s not you just sensing a calling. It’s others, mature leaders that have done the journey to say, we know that you’re called in. It’s time to step into that. That’s what ordination is. We live in a time. Thank you. When people want a title before they’ve earned it.

00:55:54:03 – 00:56:27:20
Unknown
But today we are presenting. Some people are doing it right because we’re presenting them. And we’re going to be entitling we’re going to be ordained people who’ve already shown the stuff. It’s our great honor to present Jerry by the company, by his extremely lovely wife, Michelle, raised within this ministry. Jeremiah has proven himself to be faithful servant, faithful servant of God who remains dedicated to the Lord.

00:56:27:22 – 00:56:39:17
Unknown
To the Lord’s word, to the apostolic doctrine, and to the faith of this house. He’s a gifted teacher. And do I hear an amen?

00:56:39:19 – 00:57:20:25
Unknown
He’s a gifted prophet and preacher, and he has blessed this house with his extremely strong creative gifts of music, of of graphic design in so many areas. Jeremiah’s heart for God’s people is proven and is reflected in his sincere pastoral care. Here, where life and across the congregations of Africa and Greece, through numerous significant trials. Jeremiah and his family have persevered with remarkable grace.

00:57:20:28 – 00:58:10:06
Unknown
They have brought their worship to the Lord in Palm Branch times, and in Willow Times. They changed a hospital here in town because of their palm branches and their willow branches. Their steadfast continues to glorify God, leaving them stronger and even more dedicated to his call. After every challenge, having been tested and approved by the Apostolic Counsel before you here at Word Life Fellowship, we proudly present Jerry by Before You for ordination into the ministry of not just the gospel, but the gospel of the Kingdom and the message of life.

00:58:10:08 – 00:58:34:20
Unknown
We present them to you at this time. Come on up here. Come on.

00:58:34:21 – 00:58:37:06
Unknown
Michelle.

00:58:37:09 – 00:58:45:19
Unknown
Kind of. Actually.

00:58:45:22 – 00:59:02:24
Unknown
Yeah. Jeremiah, it’s our honor to present to you these vows for you to embrace. Just answer with, by the grace of God, I will.

00:59:02:26 – 00:59:47:01
Unknown
Romans 121 says, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. Will you commit to keep your personal life, character, marriage, and conduct consecrated unto the Lord? Remembering that your life must support the message you preach. First Corinthians four, verse two. Moreover, it is required in Stuart’s that a man be found faithful. So will you commit to remaining faithful to the calling of God through seasons of blessing, adversity, increase, and difficulty.

00:59:47:03 – 01:00:29:22
Unknown
Second Timothy four two says, preach the word, be instant in season and out of season. Will you commit to faithfully preaching, teaching, and defending in the living word of truth, God’s word, without compromise? First Peter five, verse two. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof. Will you commit to loving and feeding and protecting, correcting and caring for the people God entrusts to your oversight?

01:00:29:24 – 01:01:01:09
Unknown
Mark 1045 says, for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Will you commit to leading as a servant, not seeking position, prominence, or personal gain, but serving Christ and his people with humility and integrity? Second Timothy two, verse two the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

01:01:01:11 – 01:01:31:02
Unknown
Will you commit to raising up disciples, developing leaders, strengthening families, and advancing the Kingdom of God beyond your own lifetime? Amen. I’m going to be anointing you.

01:01:31:04 – 01:01:57:26
Unknown
The ordaining council. Hallelujah. All right. We’re going to anoint chair by. I’m going to pray for you, my friend. And this is not just a formal ceremony. God will do something. That’s right. Yeah. We’re. Amen. In what? He’s already done. All right. But now it’s the time for next level of activation and releasing. Of what God has put on the end on the inside of you.

01:01:57:28 – 01:02:36:24
Unknown
Father, in the name of Jesus, we confirm and we lay our hands. When Jeremiah. And in the name of Jesus we recognize and we come into agreement. Father, with your pleasure. You’re a man. And what you have done and what you have accomplished in his life. And we ask you, father, that you will anoint him. Anoint him to break and anoint him to build, anoint him to heal, anoint him to deliver, anoint him to shepherd the church of God which you have purchased with your own blood.

01:02:36:26 – 01:03:02:13
Unknown
I’m asking you, father, in the name of Jesus, we set him apart. We set him before you, Lord. And we ask God, let great grace come upon him for this assignment. God for what you have called him to do. And, Lord, let him have your heart in this. Let him have the shepherd heart of Christ. And we declare, and we decree in the name of Jesus.

01:03:02:13 – 01:03:36:06
Unknown
Jeremiah, preach the word, be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, because the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears. But you, men of God, you flee these things. Be strong and what God has graced you with, and shepherd the house of God and do the work of an evangelist.

01:03:36:09 – 01:04:04:20
Unknown
God, I ask you that you will reach him. Reach into him. Rise up at him, reach through him, and touch the whole area and territory in Jamestown and let the sound of your voice, God, come to the sound of his, and let them come. When they hear that voice, they’ll hear the sound of their shepherd. We thank you for father in the name of Jesus.

01:04:04:26 – 01:04:20:04
Unknown
We anoint them. We pray and ask you, Lord, let bless him be his portion. And we declare him an Ephesians 411 New Testament pastor. In Jesus name, Amen.

01:04:20:06 – 01:04:28:23
Unknown
Come on, give the Lord a shout.

01:04:28:25 – 01:05:21:08
Unknown
Now, the formal recognition, Apostle Patton, as the apostles of this house and the authority of that calling and assignment, we hereby formally recognized and set in place in the Body of Christ, local and universal. Jeremiah as pastor in the name of Jesus. This is your commission. This is the authority that comes with the commission. If you people know that commission is actually two words together common unity and a mission.

01:05:21:10 – 01:05:57:16
Unknown
And this goes back actually to the roots of our faith, not just 57 years ago, but over 2000 years ago, when Jesus said in his departing. All authority is given to me from heaven. And you know, so his connection to His Father in heaven is solid. It’s rooted there. And then he says, go make disciples of all men.

01:05:57:19 – 01:06:55:27
Unknown
The Lord’s anointing you today, son, to go and make disciples, to take what you’ve had here and learned here and what’s been burned in your heart here, and bring it to you, that people that are crying out for you and for your team. I know you’ll be a good shepherd. I would like to ask the prophetic team that has been assembled to join us, and we’re going to have a little time of prayer and prophetic over Jeremy and Michelle.

01:06:55:29 – 01:07:41:10
Unknown
Thank you father. Thank you for this cup of Lord, Lord, that stands before you united us. One God, we thank you for your promise, your faithfulness, your empowerment, your equipping. Have your way, Lord. Anoint them and keep them heard. The father say very clearly, son, you remember the day that you said, I will apply myself to this?

01:07:41:12 – 01:07:49:05
Unknown
And he said, yes. And you applied yourself to me, to who I am.

01:07:49:07 – 01:08:12:15
Unknown
You set yourself to pray before me. You set yourself to study my word. You set yourself to be approved. And God says, I remember that day. And like that day. This is a day that I am setting you apart, and I am anointing you to do the work that I have called you to do here on the earth.

01:08:12:17 – 01:08:45:28
Unknown
God says, this is who you are. You don’t have to pretend. Just be. God says there isn’t a way that you have to dress. There is in a way that you have to act. Just be be with me, says God. It is who you are. It is who your wife is. It is who your family is. God. It says, I remember the day, son, and I’m sending you into a place.

01:08:46:00 – 01:09:14:15
Unknown
The Lord says, where the enemy has told people and has put a shame on them to feel joy. This house will be a house full of joy, says the Lord. It will be a house that is marked by my joy, not a feeling, says the Lord. Not a feeling of joy, but my joy that comes from my spirit, that is of my character.

01:09:14:18 – 01:09:42:07
Unknown
And God says, when you walk in to Jamestown, the Lord says, you will have to break off the shame that the enemy has put on people that says it is okay to feel joy. The Lord says, walk in. Walk in with confidence, son. Walk in with courage, son. Walk in with your team, son. Father says, remember that day that you applied yourself.

01:09:42:10 – 01:10:27:27
Unknown
Remember this day, or have our deigned you and set you apart with authority, says the Lord. And I’ve given you a clear mandate today. It’s been made clear what your path is. But I want to have both of you turn around and look at the screen behind you. I’ve shown you enough light to be able to know pretty much where the path is that you’re going, but I have not, and am not showing you all the details about what’s going to come.

01:10:28:00 – 01:10:55:09
Unknown
I’ve given you enough to know your direction, but the details are going to come with us working together. And I want to tell you that when the days come that you say, I can’t do this, Lord, you got the wrong people.

01:10:55:12 – 01:11:41:20
Unknown
I want you to bring to me the all of your worship and your tears. Bring them to me. Because you’re right. You can’t do it. But we can. We can do it. So bring that to me, and we will work together. And I will bring clarity to the details when you need it. And daughter, I’m placing a special anointing on you for this task to bring the oil of your worship and your tears.

01:11:41:22 – 01:12:14:03
Unknown
Just as we’re brought to me and placed on my feet, and that my feet were dried with her hair. And I am going to hear your prayers, my daughter, and you are going to be a help to your husband from what I will reveal to you, and you will work together as a team. And Michelle, the Lord actually had me bring something for you today.

01:12:14:06 – 01:12:47:20
Unknown
A broken jar to remind you of this special relationship that you and I are going to have. That you are going to be that to me and for me and for your husband and for the people. When both of your hearts are breaking over what you are seeing, what’s coming before you, I’m going to remember and here and listen and help.

01:12:47:23 – 01:13:36:11
Unknown
I love you both, and I’ve got your back and we’re going to do this together. The father says, son, daughter, I put the heart of a father and a mother in you today. The Lord says, I’m going to increase that measure. It’s going to be increased to even overflowing to times where you just look, Lord, I just can’t contain this.

01:13:36:14 – 01:13:53:15
Unknown
And the father says, the place that I’m taking you to, as we’ve been talked about, of reproducing and the Lord says, the same anointing, the same spirit that was on the beginning of this house.

01:13:53:18 – 01:14:27:08
Unknown
Lord says, I’m taking it from James Street to Jamestown. God said, you’re going to be known in the area, in the community, as a place of deliverance and a place of healing. The words going to get out, they’re going to go, I don’t know what’s going on in this place, but come, come be healed, come be delivered. So God’s placing that anointing on you, if you will.

01:14:27:08 – 01:14:54:28
Unknown
So I have a hearing. No. No earrings. This was a pastor Tom from 45 years ago that I just. There’s not much left of it, but I just keep this because it’s really precious to me. So I want to just anoint your hands. Both of yours. I want to know your hands. Thank you father. Thank you father. I just thank you for where you’re calling them to.

01:14:55:01 – 01:15:05:11
Unknown
I thank you for the anointing that you’re putting on them. Thank you. It’s going to be a great anointing, even like in the beginning of this house.

01:15:05:14 – 01:15:32:27
Unknown
Father will be by your hand and by your spirit. Thank you. Father. Your father says.

01:15:33:00 – 01:15:52:29
Unknown
My son, before the foundations of the world, I chose you, and I anointed you before the foundations of the world. And now I’ve anointed you again, just like my servant David was anointed twice.

01:15:53:01 – 01:16:17:28
Unknown
You’ve asked me, Lord, I’ve heard about you. And yes, you have. But you said, I want to see you. You’re going to see me in all the people that you come in contact with. You’re going to see them. You’re going to see their heart and you’re going to minister to them. You’re not going to care where they came from.

01:16:17:29 – 01:16:52:26
Unknown
It’s not going to matter. You’re going to minister to their needs. You’re going to minister to those that are addicted, those that are caught up in things that are wicked evil, those that are sick mentally, spiritually and physically. You can have minister them. I am part unto thee, healing in these hands, healing. So when you lay hands on the sick, they’ll be healed.

01:16:52:28 – 01:17:21:15
Unknown
They’ll be raised from the dead, and I and that to you, my son, I love you. And there’s nothing that will be impossible for you and daughter of mine. Yes, I have blended your personality together in covenant with one another and with me. You are going to stand, as it was said by his side. And when he weeps, you’re going to weep.

01:17:21:18 – 01:17:46:22
Unknown
When he smiles and laughs and is happy, you’re going to smile and laugh and be happy. You’re going to lift him up in prayer, and you’re going to intercede for him, and you’re going to see things happen in his life. You’re made for one another, says the Lord. So I want you to rejoice this day in what’s happening, because it’s a good thing.

01:17:46:24 – 01:18:21:21
Unknown
Again, be encouraged because I’m going to be with you every step of the way, says your father. The call is true. Your heart is true.

01:18:21:23 – 01:18:48:07
Unknown
Father says, your heart is true. For you to live as Christ and to die is gain. Sink deeper into my son. Walk with your brother Jesus. Nothing could stop you, could it? Everything that stood in your way now stands under your feet. The light in you is too bright. The enemies never told you the truth. And you’ve never believed them.

01:18:48:07 – 01:19:38:14
Unknown
Once you walk over those lies because the light in you is too strong. The heart is too genuine. I created that heart. I knit it together. Men will follow you. Women will follow you. Children and elderly will follow you because you follow my son. And I want everyone to hear the voice today of affirmation, of worthiness, of redemption, because nothing that came against you could stop you and nothing will, says the Lord.

01:19:38:16 – 01:19:53:01
Unknown
I just want I want to pray over you, father, I thank you.

01:19:53:04 – 01:20:13:00
Unknown
We thank you. Today, as a body of Christ, we thank you for these gifts. God, I thank you for my brother, for my sister. Not just in name.

01:20:13:02 – 01:20:45:27
Unknown
But in lives knitted together that the same blood courses through our veins. And Lord, I stand today before you with such joy and gratefulness. Lord and father, today I pray. I thank you Lord. I thank you for the commissioning. I thank you for the assignment, for this one and the future ones that are already prepared for them.

01:20:46:00 – 01:21:06:28
Unknown
Father, we thank you for the souls that will be brought into the Kingdom because of their lives laid down. We thank you, God, for thee, the regions and the territories, that the landscape of these places will be changed.

01:21:07:00 – 01:21:18:28
Unknown
Because of what you will plant their father most of all.

01:21:19:01 – 01:22:03:12
Unknown
I pray for them that their eyes will remain focused on the most important thing, which is people being transformed and shaped into the image of Jesus Christ. And father, I pray for a grace on their lives and on their hearts, their minds and their vision. Lord, in all of the possibilities and all of the establishing and building of structures and ministries and on ramps and ways for people to connect to your Kingdom.

01:22:03:15 – 01:22:17:01
Unknown
God, I pray for this, establishing grace on them to grow up men and women into the image of Jesus.

01:22:17:03 – 01:22:30:15
Unknown
That this will be the primary thing in all of the things, and we say they are well able.

01:22:30:18 – 01:23:01:12
Unknown
They are well able because of the Spirit of God that is in them. And father, even as you have spoken to us, that there is a pipeline of all from this place to the nation of Greece. God, I declare over them. Today there is a pipeline of oil into Jamestown and into the other places. God that you are preparing.

01:23:01:12 – 01:23:46:00
Unknown
Lord, I see you, God, digging, digging, digging and setting in pipes, preparing for the oil that will flow. And so, God, we just declare over them that the all will never run out. There will be an abundance of all, all to heal, all to deliver, oil to break open. And we just declare over them God the ability, by the power of the Holy Spirit to break open every place that resists you in the name of Jesus.

01:23:46:02 – 01:24:20:08
Unknown
It’s the all that breaks every yoke of bondage. And as the people of God we declare over them, they are people filled with all their team. Are people filled with all the sons and daughters that are coming in. Under them will be people filled with all, and that in every barren place you are restoring, and those will be planted there as trees of righteousness.

01:24:20:11 – 01:24:29:02
Unknown
We bless them today in the name of Jesus.

01:24:29:04 – 01:26:57:22
Unknown
I love you, Lord, and I live.

01:26:57:24 – 01:27:09:28
Unknown
Lord, we just thank you, Lord. We thank you for the fulfillment of your promises.

01:27:10:00 – 01:27:17:07
Unknown
We thank you for the next season that you are launching us into.

01:27:17:09 – 01:27:33:09
Unknown
And we are so grateful for your faithfulness and your goodness. And Lord, I thank you for these two amazing servants.

01:27:33:11 – 01:27:38:28
Unknown
And we pray the richest anointing of God.

01:27:39:00 – 01:27:45:20
Unknown
Over their lives and through their lives.

01:27:45:22 – 01:28:21:23
Unknown
Lord, I thank you for the hearts that are connected. That time and space cannot unconnected. So we praise you today. We rejoice. We are so excited for the next thing that you have. Oh God, we are so excited that we get to partner with Holy Spirit in bringing your name and making your name great in the earth. So we give you praise and glory today.

01:28:21:25 – 01:28:32:09
Unknown
And your name we pray.

01:28:32:11 – 01:29:04:13
Unknown
Amen. Jeremy Tesco hero in our home. I promise to stand by you and cry with you and have so much joy in what we’re building together. I promised to pray for you, intercede for you, say the hard things when they’re needed, and to.

01:29:04:15 – 01:29:29:11
Unknown
They are all who I am. That the Lord had made me perfectly for you in this work together.

01:29:29:14 – 01:30:01:26
Unknown
Love you, Pastor Jared Tosco. Your certificate of Ordination and a token of remembrance that you are servant of all. We love you, church. Let’s celebrate our brother. Yeah.

01:30:01:28 – 01:30:38:20
Unknown
Yeah, I’m ready to eat just like you. But I want to say this is a greatest honor of my life. Apostle. I said it well to be one who is born here, to be walking in the legacy of all of you. My father and mother’s generation. Those before those that, are rooted and have walked the walk of faith, have faced so many hard, difficult things, faced severe persecution when we first broke into this territory.

01:30:38:22 – 01:31:09:09
Unknown
When the Lord planted us here, he planted us here. And he’s planting more here on the mountain. And just like he is prophesied time and time again, it is going to erupt from this mountain, and it is going to go down the hills, and it is going to go down into the valleys, and I declare it’s going to go down into the cities, even to the coast land, because what God has begun, he will continue and he will perfect it.

01:31:09:13 – 01:31:39:26
Unknown
He will perform that which he has said. So I trust the word of the Lord as you trust the word of the Lord. And this is my greatest honor to be a son of this house, to be in service to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and all that he has established in us. And it’s time to reach.

01:31:39:28 – 01:32:04:20
Unknown
Thank you, apostles. Thank you for bringing this to us today. You and Sheila are incredible leaders and we are so grateful to have you a part of this. So we’re going to go to fellowship from here. For those who don’t know what that is, we eat food together and we share our lives together, and we tell stories of what God is doing, and so do join us.

01:32:04:20 – 01:32:21:06
Unknown
We have food available for you. If you’re courageous enough to meet a new face, we hope you will join us. Church. God bless. It was good to be

Rooted & Reaching

Apostle Les Bowling

God does not establish us simply so we can survive. He roots us so we can reach.

Apostle Les Bowling brought a timely word about the necessity of both depth and expansion—being deeply established in God while allowing everything He has built within us to extend into people, communities, generations, and territories beyond ourselves.

The message is simple:

Without roots, we cannot endure.
Without reach, we cannot fulfill our destiny.

We need both.

Roots Give Us the Strength to Remain

Jesus explains in Matthew 13 that some seed falls on rocky ground. The person receives the Word with joy, but because there is no root, that joy cannot endure the pressure that eventually comes. When tribulation comes, persecution comes, and difficulty comes, what appeared strong for a moment begins to disappear. Apostle Les put it in a way most of us can understand:

You can be excited on Sunday and in a cave by Monday. A powerful encounter with God matters, but Christianity is not simply a collection of powerful moments. It is a long journey.

God wants fruit in our lives, but He wants fruit that remains, and that requires roots.

Isaiah 37 gives the picture:

“Take root downward, and bear fruit upward.”

The fruit everyone can see is only possible because of the root system nobody can see. Years of saying yes to God when nobody was watching. Those hidden roots create the capacity to remain when storms come.

God Plants Before He Fills

Psalm 80 describes God bringing a vine out of Egypt, planting it, causing it to take deep root, and then allowing it to fill the land.

The pattern is clear: God plants something, it takes root, and then it begins to fill territory.

Even from Genesis, planting is part of God’s creative pattern. God spoke. He formed. He breathed. And He planted a garden. We are a planted people, and when God plants something deeply enough, it becomes strong enough to carry influence beyond itself. Apostle Les recognized that Word of Life has developed a strong root system over many years. That strength did not appear accidentally. A church does not endure generations, difficulties, transition, loss, and change without something deep beneath the surface holding it steady. The fact that you are still worshiping, still believing, still loving Jesus, and still moving forward is evidence that roots have been established.

But roots were never meant to become the end of the story.

God Didn’t Bring You This Far Just to Survive

There is a danger in celebrating survival so much that survival becomes our vision.

Apostle Les said: God didn’t bring you this far just so you could be a trophy of survival.

God is not simply interested in proving that we can make it through hard things. He intends for us to thrive. A church can have tremendous history, deep convictions, strong relationships, and generations of faithful people—and still be called into something new. The roots make the reach possible. Word of Life has been rooted.

Now there is a new apostolic phase: reaching.

Reaching farther, reaching deeper, reaching into new communities, reaching into new generations, and reaching into spheres of society where the life of Christ needs to be seen. What God has established in us is not supposed to remain contained within us.

Without Roots There Is No Heritage. Without Reach There Is No Destiny.

Apostle Les gave a powerful contrast.

Without roots, there is no sustainability.

No endurance.

No lasting strength.

No heritage.

But without reaching, there is no destiny.

No expansion.

No future.

No multiplication.

No legacy.

That means we cannot choose one over the other. If we reach without roots, we may experience excitement for a moment, but we lack what is necessary to sustain it. But if we become deeply rooted and never reach outward, we preserve something that eventually stops reproducing. God wants both roots and reach.

Roots give us identity. Reach carries that identity forward.

Roots give us nourishment. Reach produces fruitfulness.

Roots give us preservation. Reach produces propagation.

Roots create depth. Reach creates breadth.

Roots give endurance. Reach brings advancement.

Roots preserve history. Reach carries us into destiny.

The goal is not to abandon what brought us here. It is to allow what God established here to become the foundation for where He is taking us next.

History Must Flow Into Destiny

There is tremendous value in remembering where we came from, and acknowledging the sacrifice of previous generations matters. Their prayers matter, their perseverance matters, and their battles matter. Apostle Les made a statement worth remembering:

If you succeed without sacrificing, somebody sacrificed.
And if you sacrifice without succeeding, somebody will.

We are part of something larger than ourselves. Some generations lay foundations, and others build upon them. Some fight battles that future generations will never have to fight. Others enter opportunities created by sacrifices they did not personally make.

This is why older and younger generations need each other.

Those putting on the armor should talk with those who have already fought battles in it.

Ask them:

How did you make it?

How did you survive that?

Where were the traps?

What mistakes should I avoid?

What kept your heart alive?

Eventually, the rooted generation may not have the strength to personally carry every new assignment, but their wisdom can help another generation reach farther. An old man’s dream can find fulfillment in a young person’s vision. Different generations may have different strategies, sounds, and expressions, but the foundational principles remain.

God Will Not Give You a Future That Doesn’t Require Him

Reaching into new territory requires faith because new territory is unfamiliar. You do not need much faith for something you already know how to do. Faith becomes necessary when you enter a place where experience alone cannot carry you.

Apostle Les made an important statement:

God will not build a ministry, future, or vision for you in which you do not need Him.

New territory should produce dependence. It requires humility, prayer, listening, and trust. The next generation may be intelligent, gifted, creative, and equipped with tools previous generations never possessed, but eventually every person encounters something that intelligence cannot solve. Those moments force us back to the same foundation: We need God.

Don’t Become a Cut Flower

Apostle Les described modern Western culture as something like a cut flower. When a flower is removed from its roots, it can still look beautiful, and it can still smell good. For a while, everything appears healthy, but the moment it was disconnected from the root, decay began. Appearance can remain after life has started disappearing, that is why advancement must never require abandoning the things that gave us life. Technology, online ministry can help, new tools can help, and innovation can help, but they cannot replace the foundations that built healthy spiritual life. Things such as prayer, intercession, fasting, perseverance, humility before God, corporate worship, and real relationships are not outdated, but are roots. If we want the strength to reach farther, we cannot disconnect from them.

We Still Need One Another

The online world can be helpful, but it cannot replace the Body of Christ. A video cannot sit beside you in a hospital and a livestream cannot carry your burden when your world falls apart. Digital ministry can supplement community, but it cannot replace the biblical call to gather, journey, forgive, serve, suffer, and overcome together. The Church is a people who need one another to help bear our burdens, who will love us and tell us the truth. Th church is a people who will forgive us or patiently walk with us, and people who will believe in us when we struggle to believe in ourselves. There is no such thing as a truly self-made person. If we reach the mountaintop, someone helped us get there by praying for us, encouraging us, opening a door for us, or lovingly correcting us, it was not because of our own self efforts. Simply put, healthy roots are relational, and healthy reach carries other people with us.

Bring God Both Branches

Apostle Les closed his teaching with a powerful image from scripture, the palm branch and the willow branch. The palm branch represents victory, breakthrough. prosperity, and/or increase. Those are the seasons when worship seems easy, but then there is the willow branch of weeping, loss, pain, and/or disappointment. A season where things are not going the way we hoped. Scripture gives us a picture of bringing both before God.

In other words:

Worship Him with the palm branch.
Worship Him with the willow branch.

Praise Him when the sun is shining. Praise Him when you are surviving.

Praise Him when prayers are being answered. Praise Him when you are still waiting.

Praise Him in breakthrough. Praise Him in grief.

Because God is greater than both seasons.

Get Your Harp Off the Willow Tree

Psalm 137 describes Israel in Babylon hanging their harps on the willow trees. Their pain had become so overwhelming that they stopped singing. Apostle Les challenged the Church:

Get your harp off the willow branch.

Do not surrender your worship to your circumstances. Worship does not mean pretending the pain is not real, it means declaring that God remains worthy in the middle of it. Your praise changes the atmosphere around you. Your circumstances may not immediately change, but something begins to shift within us and around us when our worship rises again. God does not simply want us to survive hard seasons. He wants us to emerge from them without losing our heart for Him, His people, or His vision.

Rooted Enough to Reach

That is where Word of Life stands in this season. Deep roots have been established. Generations have prayed. People have sacrificed. Leaders have remained faithful. Storms have come, but the house is still standing. Now the roots must support greater reach, and the planting of Word of Life Jamestown is one expression of that. What God established in one place can now begin to reproduce somewhere else. The expression may look different, but the same spiritual DNA can remain.

The same Jesus.

The same Gospel.

The same message of life.

The same dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

The same commitment to people being transformed into the image of Christ.

We honor our roots and then we reach, because roots without reach leave us with history but no future. And reach without roots gives us motion without endurance. However, when deep roots and courageous reach come together, generations can be changed.

Therefore, take root downward, bear fruit upward. Stay rooted and keep reaching!

Discussion Guide

Rooted & Reaching

Apostle Les Bowling

Short Summary

Apostle Les Bowling teaches that God’s people are called to be both rooted and reaching.

Roots create endurance, identity, stability, spiritual nourishment, and the ability to withstand storms. Reach creates multiplication, influence, future, destiny, and legacy.

The Church cannot sacrifice one for the other.

We must remain deeply connected to the spiritual foundations that brought us here—prayer, the Word, worship, perseverance, community, and dependence upon the Holy Spirit—while allowing God to extend our influence into new generations, communities, and territories.

Even during seasons of loss and difficulty, we are called to keep worshiping. Whether we are holding the palm branch of victory or the willow branch of suffering, God remains worthy.


Icebreakers

  1. What is something you have seen survive because it had a really strong foundation?
  2. Who is someone from an older generation whose wisdom has helped you?
  3. Are you naturally more inclined to preserve what is established or to try something new?

Discussion Questions

1. What does it mean to be rooted?

Read Matthew 13:20–21.

Why can someone receive God’s Word with joy and still struggle to endure?

What spiritual practices have helped your roots go deeper?


2. “Take root downward and bear fruit upward.”

Why do you think Scripture connects visible fruit with invisible roots?

What kinds of hidden spiritual disciplines eventually become visible fruit in our lives?


3. “God didn’t bring you this far just so you could be a trophy of survival.”

Have there been seasons where simply surviving felt like the goal?

What would it look like for you to move from survival into thriving and reaching?


4. Without roots there is no heritage; without reach there is no destiny.

Which side are you more tempted toward—staying comfortable in what is established or reaching so aggressively that you neglect your foundations?

How can we protect both?


5. What can generations learn from one another?

Apostle Les compared those putting on armor with those taking it off after battle.

What wisdom should younger generations intentionally seek from those who have gone before them?

What should older generations make available to those coming behind them?


6. “God will not build a future for you in which you do not need Him.”

How does unfamiliar territory increase our dependence upon God?

Is there an area where God may currently be asking you to move beyond what is familiar?


7. Palm branch or willow branch?

Apostle Les described the palm branch as victory and the willow branch as suffering or loss.

Which kind of season are you in right now?

What would it practically look like to bring your worship to God in that season rather than hanging your harp on the willow tree?


Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your Son Jesus, Who is our firm foundation. We thank You Father for this timely word from Apostle Les to Word of Life Fellowship that has both affirmed our past and has given us courage to reach toward the future and hope that you have for us as a church. In this season, help us Holy Spirit to not grow weary in well doing. Strengthen us with Your joy everlasting, as we return to our first love in worship. Holy Spirit, continue to lead and guide our Pastors, Jonathan and Shelly Foley, and their amazing core team as they expand our reach in the days, months, and years ahead. Thank you, that you have equipped us, and called us for such a time as this! In Jesus name we pray, AMEN!